Dear comrades in struggle!
On behalf of the Central Committee of the RCWP, I welcome the participants of the International Conference “The rising tide of global war and the tasks of the anti-imperialists” in Athens November 2023.
Today’s situation in the world is extremely tense. The general crisis of capitalism is deepening, which is looking for a way out by unleashing wars and fascizing regimes. There are still pockets of confrontation in many regions of the world: around Cuba and Venezuela; in the Middle East, where “unexpectedly” the conflict has manifested itself clearly and in a very severe form, and we will have to evaluate it based on the essence of this particular war and taking into account the foreign policy of the US government aimed at preserving its world domination; on the Korean peninsula, etc. However, the epicenter of tension today is still in Ukraine.
Today, as in Lenin’s time, the attitude to the ongoing war (in Ukraine) is the main question of the socialist movement.
Because—it is caused by the contradictions of the major imperialist forces;
Because—dozens of countries are already involved in it;
Because—there is a very real danger of this war escalating into World War III, with the use of nuclear weapons;
Because—we are dealing with a revived and expanding modern fascism.
Communists, unlike other political forces, look at all issues from a class position—the position of the working class. The essence of imperialism was revealed by Lenin in his work “Imperialism as the highest stage of capitalism”. And today this essence has not changed. Imperialism is war! This is what all the leftist forces arguing among themselves agree on. They all seem to rely on Lenin, but they have different assessments and positions.
By and large, in our community today two directions have been formed, according to which two alternative statements were signed at the last International Meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties in Havana in October 2022.
One is those who, in our estimation, have in practice mechanically applied the Bolshevik formulas of 1914-1916 to the present situation and declared the war inter-imperialist for all participants, accordingly assigning equal responsibility to all parties involved in the conflict. It is clear that these comrades called the SMO (Special Military Operation) an unacceptable Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The second, to which our RCWP belongs, is those comrades who felt that the situation today is qualitatively different from the times of the First World War. The analysis and identification of the real essence of the war according to Lenin (the words “real essence” show that we must distinguish the apparent from the real, appearance from essence, phrases from deeds – V.I. Lenin) led us to the conclusion that for the US and NATO this war, waged by the hands of Nazi Ukraine since 2014, is undoubtedly an invasive war, while in the actions of Donbass, and since 2022 of the Russian Federation (SFO), there is clearly a forced, defensive component, that is, an element of a just national war.
The parties are engaged in theoretical and political polemics, sometimes very sharp and often turning to personal assessments and labeling. At the same time, both seem to rely on and even abundantly quote Lenin in their conclusions. How to make sense of it?
Our party actively participated in discussions both in Russia and within the framework of the European Communist Initiative, first of all, with comrades from the KKE and supporters of equal responsibility of all parties. (We sent our report “On the real essence of the war in Ukraine…” to all parties).
We, with all our respect for the Greek comrades, believe that they make major theoretical errors in the interpretation of Lenin’s theory of imperialism when they threw out the core of the content of the doctrine—that of a handful of particularly rich and powerful, most predatory imperialist states that plunder the whole world. Instead, they proposed the theory of a kind of pyramid, where all countries are imperialist, only at different levels, where the upper ones exploit the weaker and lower ones. The comrades confused themselves and confused others.
Today, the essence of imperialism has not changed. Today, this handful is led by the imperialists of the United States of America and their closest allies from the NATO bloc. This powerful bloc of the biggest imperialist predators is now fighting for its dominance in the world.
The qualitative difference of the present situation from 1916 is that a powerful single nucleus of imperialist predators has been formed, which, of course, opposes the other imperialist camp, but they have chosen Russia as a target, as a momentary victim, expecting to solve their internal economic problems for some time at the expense of its defeat and dismemberment. As in 1991 they postponed their crisis by destroying the USSR. Therefore, to deny the positive defensive component in Russia’s war, to put it in Lenin’s words, is theoretically wrong, historically clearly wrong, and practically it is equal to European chauvinism. Today, perhaps we should say, it is Euronatovian chauvinism.
Another major mistake of the comrades, we believe, is their rejection of the theoretical developments of the Comintern, first of all, of the definition of the essence of fascism and, accordingly, of the tactics of the struggle using popular fronts. Hence their skeptical attitude to our assessments of the foreign policy of the United States and the imperialist bloc, but practice, as the criterion of truth, proves us right. What this bloc pursues in its foreign policy is, according to the Comintern’s definition, real fascism, which is being realized today in Ukraine and in the processes of fascization in the countries of the bloc, especially Poland and the Baltic States.
Under the conditions created, in the opinion of the RCWP, the communists of the whole world are obliged to work by all means and methods to defeat the US-NATO bloc, to stop the spread and strengthening of fascism in Ukraine and in the world. Any methods and all possible allies are suitable for this purpose! In this sense, we consider it deeply erroneous to deny and even to present the participants of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform as agents of imperialism, as comrades from the KKE do. We too do not agree with a number of provisions of the position of the World Anti-Imperialist Platform, for example, about the anti-imperialist character of Russia and China, but… we know Lenin’s instruction: You cannot win with one vanguard! At the present moment we and the platform parties are allies in the struggle against the main danger—the imperialist swarm of US-NATO imperialism that carries the threat of the iron heel of fascism to the whole world.
The RCWP believes that only the defeat of the “USA and NATO” bloc in the current war (that is, if bourgeois Russia survives and overthrows the Kiev Nazi regime), only this will undoubtedly create more favorable conditions for the development of the workers’ movement and for the struggle for socialism in all countries.
Therefore, we wish everyone success to sort out the situation and propose to continue our common struggle.
We are in the same class formation!
Let us not waver on the path we have chosen!
P.S. The opportunists today are those who in their political myopia present the case in such a way that the warring parties represented by the Russian Federation, EU countries and the NATO bloc headed by the USA are fighting among themselves simply for the redistribution of spheres of influence, control of transportation routes, etc. These comrades are the ones who are fighting for Ukraine and its people. These comrades, relying on dogmatically understood Marxism, present Ukraine and its people as a punching bag, which is beaten by imperialists from all sides. In fact, the position of these “no to war” people is reduced to placing equal responsibility on all warring parties, thus diverting from the responsibility of the main aggressor—the US and NATO. And the call to “stop the war” is tantamount to a proposal to stop fighting fascism, thus bringing closer its eventual triumph and, consequently, the condemnation of all the working classes.